And along with the heat are coming some damaging wildfires in southern California, New Mexico, and Arizona covering tens of thousands of acres of land and displacing hundreds of families. Firefighters are working to contain the blazes, though the continued heat wave through the weekend could complicate things.

Check out some of the striking snapshots of the massive fires over the week.

The smoke has made its way over the Pacific, as seen by satellite.

As of Friday, it was covering more than 4,000 acres of land, and hundreds of homes have been evacuated so far.

So far, it's only about 5% contained. “You add a little bit of wind and these continued drought conditions and fires are going to threaten more homes and do more damage and take more resources," a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman told the LA Times.

The area where the Sherpa Fire is blazing has seen more than its fair share of wildfires. In 1955, a wildfire destroyed more than 50,000 acres of land and property.

Reuters

Here's what the smoke looked like as of Thursday.

Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

In New Mexico, a duo of fires have been taking over the state. The newest, called the Dog Head Fire, started Tuesday and has quickly covered 16,000 acres.

The Dog Head Fire is just west of Chilili, New Mexico, forcing residents to evacuate the area. Over in the southwestern part of the state, a wildfire named the North Fire has been burning for almost a month, damaging more than 26,000 acres.

Over in Arizona, a huge fire broke out on Wednesday, covering more than 2,500 acres and creating a lot of smoke.

The smoke from the fires in New Mexico and Arizona made it all the way up to Colorado, leading to some air quality alerts.

In particular, the California fire seems worrisome, with the LA Times calling it a "bad omen" for the rest of the fire season. And a heat wave expected to hit the area through Tuesday will only make matters worse by taking out any remaining moisture that could fend off the fire.